eLawyer Legal Blog Writing Contest 2008

Look! A new contest is open to us.

By Eddie Law

The recent “political tsunami” in our country has yielded many changes for us, the rakyat. We have seen the emergence of a dual-party system (well, almost), where a bigger and tougher opposition shares the limelight with the ruling party. We have seen giant-killers and the almighty falls of ministers. We have seen the weakening of racial politics and the strengthening of democracy.

For the legal community, the change came in the form of Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, the new de facto law minister. He was hailed as “the most promising appointment” in the new cabinet by The Economist (read “Shuffling deckchairs” in The Economist, 2008-03-19,issue). He has so far lived up to the name.

Datuk Zaid has forced the government to apologize for the 1988 judicial crisis (a huge leap, that one), introduced the Common Bar Examination and won his staunch support for the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video Clip. Well, Datuk Zaid is here to stay.

Thus, eLawyer, as your local legal community portal, would like to hear yourviews and concerns regarding some of the issues currently affecting the legal community and the country as a whole.

We would like to invite all lawyers, law student and bloggers to participate in our blog writing competition, which features some ‘hot’ topics right now:

1) Towards an independent judiciary in Malaysia

2) Common Bar Exams: the creation of a new problem or a solution for an old one?

3) Welcome CheDet.com: the impact of Tun Mahathir’s blog

4) Anti-party hopping law- agree or Disagree?

Choose ONE of the above topics, give your two-cents worth in not more than 1,000 words and you stand to win up to RM 500 cash! Successful entries will be featured in an exclusive section on our website.

1. Dr Azmi Sharom – an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya. Apart from teaching, he is also a column writer for The Star newspaper. He is well known for his bold and critical views on various issues regarding the democracy and constitutional law in Malaysia.

2. Lee Shih – a practising lawyer and a member of the KL Bar Committee. He chairs the Publications Committee and serves as Deputy Chair of the IT Committee. He tries to blog regularly, despite his hectic schedule.

3. Fahri Azzat – a lawyer at Azzat & Izzat. He serves on the IT Committee of KL Bar Committee. Fahri is a blogger and is also the founder of an online email forum – “The Rostrum”, which is meant for legal professionals to discuss issues concerning the legal industry.

Terms and Conditions

1. This competition is only open to eLawyer members. For non-members who wish to participate, sign up as a Basic Member for FREE at www.elawyer.com.my.

2. Entries should be submitted via email to contest@elawyer.com.my by 12 p.m. on or before 30 November 2008. Late entries will be automatically disqualified.

4. Winners will be contacted via email / telephone and their names will be published on www.eLawyer.com.my.

5. The organiser reserves the right to display/publish/use any submitted entries in any way it deems fit and to amend the terms and conditions of this contest at the organiser’s absolute discretions.

6. The judges’ decision is final. No enquiry/appeals will be entertained pertaining to their decision.

7. For other questions regarding this contest, you may contact us at 03-2782 5399 or email to contest@elawyer.com.my.

This event is supported by:

Law Society, University Malaya

UK Malaysian Law Student Union

Law Student’s Union, International Islamic University Malaysia

Law & Commerce Soceity, Management & Science Univeristy

Law Society, National University Malaysia (UKM)

This is in fact first-of-its-kind competition in the history of Malaysia. We urge all of our members to take part in it and if you still not yet a member, please register as a basic member (it is FREE) and email us your essay as soon as you can.

13 Responses to “eLawyer Legal Blog Writing Contest 2008”

Hey lawyers,
Why not you write about this brave man’s battle for justice without any legal aid or knowledge at http://consumersrighteousness.blogspot.com/. I think it would be a more interesting article not that this is not good. What you think? Just my 2 cents.

Great contest, this will promote critical thinking among youths. By the way, I have some suggestions. Since the contest is closing only on 30th November, is it not possible for a single person to send in multiple entries, if he/she desires to write essays for all four topics? However, make sure to limit each participant to send in only 1 entry for any one topic and remind participants that they can only win 1 prize, if they have won the 1st prize, their other essays would not qualify for 2nd, 3rd or even consolation prizes.

Also, can you promise that the winners could choose to have their essays posted anonymously if they choose to do so?

BobbyT – We only consider entry with real name, however, we may consider not to publish the real name of the winner if he/she choose to. But we cannot promise anything at this point of time. We don’t see any reason why someone wants to remaind anonymous if he is proud of his article.

You may submit more than 1 entry but we will only judge the 1st entry that you have submitted, the rest entries may be published at our site if we deem it is worth to read by our readers.

Avatar – are you a law student too or lawyer? Yes, topic no. 2 is very interesting and we believe public feedback is important.

I completed my CLP part time in 2005. It was the most stressful (*tension* betul!!!) exam I ever had. The atmosphere in the morning at the UM exam hall before the papers was so palpable, it was excruciating. Then again, it’s understandable: so much to study and so little time.

If I were relying on the CLP as my rice bowl, I think it would be even worst. Glad I completed it, as my heart couldn’t take another year of such exquisite torture

I am not a law student, I don’t know much about judiciary and the bar exams (I mean in-depth), so I am inclined to write about chedet or party-hopping.

Of course, I am not asking for us to enter the contest anonymously, just when any of us win, he or she could choose simply a pseudonym, if he or she wants (optional of course).

Call me a clairvoyant or just someone who worry too much. If we are going to write about chedet or party-hopping, do you think it will be interesting if it is not critical and realistic (without pretense or hesitation)? Combine those 2 and we might have something called sensitive issues. Regarding the clairvoyant thing, didn’t we see a blogger, a MP and a reporter arrested today under ISA? (You can edit or censor this comment if you deem it necessary). So, in a way, I am just being cautious, if you could promise that 1 thing, I think we can avoid unnecessary arguments in the future when winners are announced. This is another way of saying, I take pride in writing (or try to write) good articles and the prizes sure are attractive but let’s say there is a chance of being in trouble, I would want to avoid it.

Final decision is yours though, just trying to reason why I had the request in the first place.